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Monday, 22 July 2013

Seattle: Veggie Grill, Pizza Pi, Razzi's, Chaco Canyon.

Oh Veggie Grill, how I miss you, I wish you were somewhere, anywhere, in England. Nick and I first visited Veggie Grill in Seattle and I ended up visiting four times over my month long US trip.

On our first night we headed there because it was just around the corner from our hotel and it was a perfect first meal, we ordered a few things to share. The Steamin' Kale with ginger miso dressing and toasted sesame seeds, the Mac-n-Cheese...

...and the Chill Out Wings

We really, really loved the wings, the cool ranch dressing was the perfect accompaniment to the crispy mock chicken fingers which I believe are made by Gardein - something else I wish we had in the UK. The kale was some of the nicest I've ever had, the dressing paired with it perfectly to make a simple healthy bowl of veg. We enjoyed the mac-n-cheese, the gluten free pasta made it perfectly al dente but we were surprised that it had quite a lot of chilli in it given that it wasn't mentioned in the description on the menu.

The Crispy Chickin' Plate has to be my absolute favourite out of all of the things I tried at Veggie Grill.

This homestyle comfort foodie plate was perfect; beautifully creamy mashed potatoes, crispy fried chickin' and that delicious kale with rosemary infused porcini mushroom gravy to tie it all together. I wish I was eating this right now!

I really hope that Veggie Grill expand across the pond one day because the UK could use an awesome vegan chain, I'm pretty sure I said the exact same thing about Native Foods after eating there last year too - I'm not fussy, I'll take either, I just want there to be readily available, reliably delicious, healthy vegan food everywhere!

One place we were super excited about trying in Seattle was Pizza Pi, an all vegan pizzeria located in the U District. This place is run by some awesome punks and we were super excited to be able to order anything from the huge and varied menu.

For some strange reason Nick isn't a believer in the stuffed crust (I know!!) so we had to make an unusual request for a half stuffed crust pizza. They told us that they'd never tried it before but that they were willing to give it a go and it came out super well. I loooooved my stuffed crust half! Pizza Pi use Teese on their pizzas and we also threw on a huge selection of the mock meats. Whilst it wasn't the best pizza I've ever eaten it was pretty damned delicious and the novelty factor of the vegan stuffed crust makes it a definite winner in my book.

Pizza Pi are somewhat famous for there dessert calzones, or baked pie pockets, and because we couldn't agree on a filling we had to order two. Now for some reason I had expected these to be cupcake sized but nuh-uh they were massive! Like, bigger than a Cornish pasty massive!

I went for the Cherry flavour...

...and Nick chose the Chocolate Peanut Butter.

These were a ridiculously epic thing to eat after a huge pizza and they were awesome! I didn't try Nick's but mine was delicious, piping hot and stuffed full of cherry pie filling. Yum!

Seattle has a plethora of vegan pizza options which you can read about on this helpful page at Seattle Vegan Score, as well as Pizza Pi I managed to try Razzi's a traditional Italian restaurant with an amazing vegan menu which includes veganised options of almost everything on their regular menu.

I started with the garlic breadsticks which came with an amazingly delicious marinara sauce for dipping. I had intended to share these with Kirsten and Randi my lovely dining companions but erm, I'm a terrible person and I just ate them all myself. Sorry, not sorry!

Despite a slight pineapple allergy (don't worry it can't kill me!) I couldn't help but order the Stay-cay, Razzi's Canadian Bacon & Pineapple Pizza. Canadian bacon is actually ham to us non-Americans and that's always been my favourite pizza combo.

This was a truly excellent pizza, it was different to the floppy über thin crust Italian pizza's I'm used to eating, the crust was slightly denser I guess but in a really good way. It's one of the meals that I'm still thinking about on an almost daily basis and I will definitely be going back next time I'm in Seattle.

As well as a vegan menu Razzi's has a gluten free menu and a gluten free vegan menu so this really is a place you and anyone you're travelling with can enjoy.

At the other end of the scale from Pizza Pi and Razzi's is the mouthwatering menu at Chaco Canyon Organic Cafe. This vegetarian cafe hadn't popped up in my Seattle research but Randi discovered it and I'm so glad she did. We went there for our last meal of the trip and I ordered the vegan quiche with a strawberry spinach salad.

This was a perfectly light, tasty and filling pre-flight meal. I wanted to eat something light so that I wouldn't feel icky on the plane, my last meal in Chicago was a hot dog and fries and in Austin it was a pizza with an apple fritter on the side, at any other time I loooove these meals but before a long haul flight? Nuh Uh, they make me feel crappy and I've vowed to stop doing it to myself! I felt the best I've ever felt getting off of the flight home from Seattle but it was a bit of an unfair test due to my cheeky points-based upgrade to Club World for the first time ever... we'll have to re-test the light meal theory next time!

The Zen Calm juice I ordered alongside my meal was the best juice I've ever had, the combination of apple, orange, spinach and mint was super fresh and delicious.

I've genuinely been considering buying a juicer just so that I can make this but I think I'm going to try making a smoothie with the same flavours first!If you enjoyed this post you can check out the first instalment in my Seattle series right here!

5 comments:

So much wonder. What does pineapple do to you when you eat it? I love it and would probably still eat it even if I had an allergy too. I have yet to go to Seattle and I'm so jealous. You lucky girl!I love any store run by punks...especially vegan food places :)

Yum! I've been to Pizza Pi, Chaco Canyon and Veggie Grill in Seattle, but I haven't even heard of Razzi's. That is going on the list for my next trip there!I discovered my first time at Veggie Grill that Gardein makes me feel kind of gross. :/ But thankfully they have so many other yummy options. I must go back!

ABOUT ME

Oh hey! I'm Jojo! Vegan in Brighton is my travel, food and lifestyle blog. I'm currently living my life on the road as I made the leap from endless wanderluster to full time traveller in January 2015. Find out more about me, my travel plans, my likes and dislikes, and how to work with me on the About Me page.